4. The Heart Center. This is located between the
shoulder blades and is - in this day and age - the center which is receiving the most
attention from Those Who are responsible for the unfoldment of the human consciousness. It
might be truly said, brother of mine, that the rapid unfoldment of this lotus is one of
the reasons why the world war could not be avoided. In one sense, it was a necessary
happening (given the blind selfishness of the bulk of humanity) because it had become
necessary to do away with all the old forms of government, of religion and of the
crystallized social order. Humanity has now reached a point of group awareness and of
group interplay of a deeply spiritual kind, and new forms were required through which this
new spirit could function more adequately.

The heart center corresponds to the "heart of the Sun," and therefore to the
spiritual source of light and love.

It is brought into functioning activity after the second initiation. That initiation
marks the completion of the process whereby the emotional nature (with its outstanding
quality of desire) is brought under soul control, and the desire of the personal lower
self has been transmuted into love. It is the organ for the distribution of hierarchical
energy, poured out [157] via the soul into the heart center of all aspirants, disciples
and initiates; in this way this energy is made available and brings about two results:

The regeneration of humanity through love.

The relationship, firmly established, between a rapidly developing humanity and the
Hierarchy. In this way two great planetary centers - the Hierarchy and Humanity - are
brought into a close contact and relationship.

As the Bible says: "the love of God is shed abroad" in the human heart, and
its transforming, magnetic and radiatory power is essential for the reconstruction of the
world and for the establishment of the new world order. Upon the unfoldment of the heart
center, and on an intelligent relation of mankind to the Hierarchy, with the consequent
response of man to the energy of love, all disciples are asked at this time to ponder and
reflect, for as a "man thinketh in his heart, so is he." Thinking in the
heart becomes truly possible only when the mental faculties have been adequately developed
and have reached a fairly high stage of unfoldment. Feeling in the heart is often confused
with thinking. The ability to think in the heart is the result of the process of
transmuting desire into love during the task of elevating the forces of the solar plexus
into the heart center. Heart thinking is also one of the indications that the higher
aspect of the heart center, the twelve-petalled lotus found at the very center of the
thousand-petalled lotus, has reached a point of real activity. Thinking as a result of
correct feeling is then substituted for personal sensitivity. It gives us the first faint
indications, likewise, of [158] that state of being which is characteristic of the monad
and which cannot be called consciousness - as we understand the term.

The heart
center becomes essentially related to the personality when the process of alignment with
the soul is being mastered. This process is today being taught in all the newer and
sounder esoteric schools, and has been emphasized in the Arcane School from the start; it
is that procedure (distinguished by right orientation, concentration and meditation) which
relates the personality to the soul, and thus to the Hierarchy. Relationship to the
Hierarchy automatically takes place as this alignment goes forward and direct soul contact
is thereby established. Personality consciousness is superseded by group consciousness,
and the inflow of hierarchical energy follows as a natural consequence, for all souls are
only aspects of the Hierarchy. It is this established relationship, with its subsequent
interplay (magnetic and radiatory), which brings about the final destruction of the soul
body or causal body as the relationship reaches its highest point of intensified
recognition.

It is that
center, therefore, in the physical body through the medium of which the Hierarchy works;
it is also the agent of the soul. When I here use the word "soul" I refer not
only to the individual soul of man but to the soul also of the planetary Logos, both of
which are the result of the union of spirit and matter, of the Father aspect and the
Mother aspect. This is a great mystery which only initiation can reveal.

The heart
center registers the energy of love. It might here be stated that when the antahkarana has
been finally constructed, the three aspects of the [159] Spiritual Triad will each find a
point of contact within the etheric mechanism of the initiate who is functioning upon the
physical plane. The initiate is now a fusion of soul and personality through which the
full life of the monad can be poured.

The head
center becomes the point of contact for the spiritual will, Atma.

The heart
center becomes the agent for spiritual love, Buddhi.

The throat
center becomes the expression of the universal mind, Manas.

In the work
of the initiate, as he works out the divine purpose according to the plan, the ajna center
becomes the directing agent or the distributor of the blended energies of the divine man.
The heart center corresponds to "solar fire" within the solar system, and is
magnetic in quality and radiatory in activity. It is the organ of the energy which brings
about inclusiveness.